Posted by Guy Downes on November 28, 2009 under Cartoons | 
A spider mind
Have you ever been in a brainstorm where one of your ideas gets killed off? Your idea is good – sure, it’s fragile, it needs work but it has the potential to fly. But waiting in the room is someone who doesn’t want your idea to do well – they’re sitting in their spiders web waiting to catch and kill your idea. I sketched this cartoon to describe this feeling.
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration |
Why coaching?
I recently did some colour illustrations for Mike Howorth who runs his own coaching and consulting practice – called Clyderhowe.
The illustrations accompany Mike’s brochure on why personal and business coaching can be beneficial at certain points in your life. Each illustration supported areas such as: what can coaching offer?; how do I know if coaching is the right way forward?; what benefits can you expect to gain from coaching?; and what can you expect from coaching?
Commit to change
Mike has a great approach to coaching based on his extensive personal and business experiences. His tag line is ‘ Action clarity results’ and he uses a great overview to introduce coaching, as follows:
“Coaching brings about improvements in performance and enhances quality of life. It takes the ‘could have’, ‘should have’ and ‘ought to’ out of your life and allows you to focus on what you really want for yourself.”
Make better decisions
Here’s what Mike had to say about my illustrations:
“I recently hired Guy to develop some illustrations for one of my programmes that I use in coaching. Not only were the illustrations superb and spot on but Guy came up with several other ideas for my business as well. I have now asked Guy to develop some illustrations for my marketing material”.
Michael Howorth, Director & Coach, Clyderhowe Coaching & Consulting Pty Ltd
Posted by Guy Downes on November 27, 2009 under Graphic Recording |
Ogilvy PR Central team: brainstorm output posters...before
The success of many communication businesses is also due to the critical people that work behind the scenes. External clients may never see them — but a successful business can’t do without them. For me, this encapsulates the Ogilvy PR Central team in Sydney, which looks after financial strategy, finance, accounts, HR and talent. (disclaimer: I worked at Ogilvy PR for 6 years).
I recently helped the Ogilvy PR Central team, led by Emma Cartwright, to convert key ideas captured from an internal brainstorm on being ‘a trusted advsior’ into a visual poster and framework that the team could see and use everyday in their office.
Ogilvy PR Central team: brainstorm poster template...after
The aim was to create a poster to help the team ’live and breathe’ the outcomes from that brainstorm on a daily basis – as well as creating something more visually compelling than messy old sheets of butchers paper. The final poster was full of visual metaphors and acted as a framework so the team could populate it with ideas and thoughts on a daily basis using post-it notes.
Here’s what Emma said:
“One of the key goals in my department is for each of us to be a “trusted advisor” to our clients – Guy helped to bring this to life for us, turning a bunch of words on some messy documents into a colourful wall poster that captures the spirit of what it takes to be a trusted advisor, and is used every day to celebrate examples of success. He listened so carefully to what it meant to me before translating this into an impactful visual that has pride of place on our wall, with the flexibility to evolve the content over time. Thank you!”
Emma Cartwright, Director, Talent & Finance, Ogilvy PR Australia
Ogilvy PR Central team: poster detail
Ogilvy PR Central team: poster on the wall
Posted by Guy Downes on under Black & White |
Paddington town house, Sydney
So often I admire these style of houses as I drive or walk past. The ornate balcony iron work, the solid and re-assuring architecture and wonderful windows that sometimes reveal a glimpse of a hidden interior as you stroll past, day or night. I was priviledged to be commissioned privately to draw this beautiful house in Paddington for a personal gift – it gave me the chance to study the architecture in detail and bring it to life on my white art paper using light and shade to accentuate the strong midday Aussie sunshine. My client loved the illustration and said it made a great gift.
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration |
...but what's my point of view?
It’s so true. How often have you read about a topic from a different source and you can see every point of view. The newspaper says one thing (and you get it), the magazine says another (and you get it) and so on but you get to the point where you understand all the angles but you’re not sure on your own point of view. This illustration was a private commission for a successful business owner who needed this summed up in a cartoon for a document he was writing.
I need to leverage and synergise with every day language...
This cartoon illustrated the point that we spend so much of our time talking and writing in corporate language that we forget how to communicate normally. (I am guilty of this…after 10 years in PR, I regularly (and sadly) found myself using press release language around the kitchen table. Terrible).
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration |
PGS fax campaign: message in a bottle
Working with the Premiere Global Services marketing team based out of Singapore, I was commissioned to illustrate a series of cartoons to demonstrate to marketeers in Singapore and Malaysia that email marketing and conferencing are one of the most cost effective mediums available in a downturn.
My aim for each illustration was to take at light-hearted and fun look at situations where people were using outdated methods to reach key audiences – the ‘message in a bottle’ is particular personal favourite. My cartoons were used in a fax campaign to key marketing targets across Singapore and Malaysia.
PGS web conferencing: it's so much easier...
Posted by Guy Downes on November 5, 2009 under Illustration |
Intel comic strip #1
To see my full size cartoons on the Intel website, click here.
Last year, I illustrated three cartoon strips for the launch of Intel’s Core i7 Processor – a mighty fast processor that delivered an incredible breakthrough in PC performance. Working with the team at Howorth, I illustrated the light-hearted scripts showing two mates, Ken and Michael, in real-life scenarios which demonstrated the benefits of the technology. Click on the link provided at the top to take a look at the illustrations and story lines in detail.
Intel comic strip #2
In terms of ROI, my cartoons provided a fun way to inform and educate media and consumers of the end-user benefits. The cartoons were used in three markets (EMEA, APAC and US) during the launch.
In detail: frame #1 from comic strip #1
Intel comic strip #3
In detail: frame #7 in comic strip #2
Posted by Guy Downes on November 4, 2009 under Cartoons |
Plugged in
This cartoon sums how I feel today. I sit alone in my office but I feel completely connected. My laptop is whirring, email is on, my smartphone sits on my drawing desk, Twitter feeds through snippets and online news sites tell me what’s happening in the world. Status: plugged in.
Posted by Guy Downes on under Graphic Recording |
Allan Hall graphic recording session: before
A few weeks ago, I was brought in by the team at Allan Hall Business Advisors to run two separate graphic recording/facilitation sessions to help them in the planning stages of a) a new service offering they were considering and b) looking at how to grow and differentiate their general insurance practice. Each session lasted 2-3 hours and my role was to ‘panoramically’ capture the team’s thoughts and ideas around building their business and service using graphic recording techniques of colour, words and images. The process helped them engage, step back from day-to-day business and see the ‘journey’ of their ideas, thoughts and conversation. It also offered the opportunity to see linkage between several key ideas and helped the team get clarity on immediate next steps and actions.
Allan Hall graphic recording session: after
My client identifying key ideas and opportunities during the session
Allan Hall is also my accountant and from where I stand (as a business owner myself, albeit a small one) they’re a great north shore success story - they have been in business for half a century and I can see why. Whenever I go in, the service is professional, attentive yet relaxed. I guess the surf board in their smart reception area sums up this approach nicely.
Allan Hall graphic recording session in full flow
Allan Hall graphic recording: poster detail
Posted by Guy Downes on November 3, 2009 under Cartoons |
Climbing the right (career) ladder
I picked up Stephen R. Covey’s excellent ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” about two years ago for the first time. Apparently, about 15 million people (probably more) had read it before me and I can see why. It made a massive impact. One line in the book hit me right between the eyes: ‘Imagine reaching the top of the career ladder only to realise you’re leaning against the wrong wall’. It was so compelling I drew this cartoon immediately. I find that line and my cartoon is relevant to me every day – I use it as my subconscious compass to make sure I am being true to my real purpose (by at least doing one thing every day that gets me closer to what my real purpose is).
